


A Cyberwolf on Earth

by SaikaKuchiki



Series: The Wolves of Cybertron [1]
Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Gen, I'm not good at shippy stuff, Mostly just werewolf stuff, Slow build ship, Werewolf!Prowl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-08-11 10:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 18,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7887958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaikaKuchiki/pseuds/SaikaKuchiki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So Prowl is a Cyberwolf - a cybertronian werewolf - and none of the Earth team know... yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prowl's Secret

**Author's Note:**

> So this work was inspired by a picture of Werewolf!Prowl by JazzTheTiger ( http://jazzthetiger.deviantart.com/art/Werewolf-Prowl-549899018 (seriously, check it out)) but I had a different idea as to how it would work. My idea is that Cyberwolfs are the result of corrupt code. It's formed in the t-cog, then causes the shift as it spreads throughout their systems. The processor can isolate the code, but the higher processor functions are essentially turned off. After the corrupt code is purged they shift back and immediately need a recharge cycle to defrag. Any extra mass is in a subspace that the mech cannot access. The fact that the code is generated in the t-cog means that they don't follow a set timetable (no moon-based shifts)  
> Also Cyberwolf because the 'were' in 'werewolf' comes from an old word for man as in man-wolf. So I thought Cybertronian wolf -> Cyberwolf

Prowl wished he would have more warning for his... phases. If he was in the correct frame of mind he could sometimes have about 12 hours warning, enough time to get himself away from other mechs. But with how busy they'd been kept in Detroit, with fighting Decepticons and the havoc caused by the Allspark fragments he hadn't had enough time to meditate properly, let alone feel this coming. They had just returned to the warehouse when Prowl felt the twinge in his t-cog that meant his shift was imminent. Resisting the urge to grasp at the pain he pushed past the rest of the team heading for his room.

“Why don't you act like a normal bot for once Prowl? Hang out and watch TV with everyone.” Bumblebee had an expression between a pout and a frown. Prowl didn't even grace him with a response, he simply continued towards his room. “Hey! Don't ignore me!” Bumblebee called after him.

“Leave him be, Bumblebee.” Prime said gently.

“So what's on today Little Buddy?” Bulkhead asked as he settled down on one of the sofas.

“There's an awesome-”

Their conversation was cut off as Prowl shut the door to his room, he locked it behind him but couldn't feasibly barricade it any further. His t-cog twinged again as the corrupted code ran another cycle and his hand curled around it now that he was alone. He took his visor off, placing it carefully off to the side, he didn't have any replacements for it so he needed it to be whole when the shift reversed. There was another stab of pain in his t-cog, forcing the ninjabot to his knee.

There wasn't the usual sound of a transformation that accompanied his shift, just the creaking, groaning, cracking of metal being warped. It started in his servos, digits lengthening into claws. His arms bulked out slightly, a vicious looking spike forming at his elbow. Next to shift were his pedes – which was a feeling he despised. He didn't know where his tyres went, only that it felt like they turned inside out. He fell onto his side as, with a grinding crunch, the axle where his tyre used to be became a new pivot point in his legs.

Prowl curled up on himself, shuddering slightly as he recalled what happened next. Suddenly having the circuits of a Primus-damned tail connected into his awarenet was a jarring feeling. Each new segment of his tail connected with a sharp, cold sting. It thrashed briefly before he could force it into stillness once it was fully formed. He forced himself to his pedes trying to resist the temptation to grit his dentae. He tried to keep his face as relaxed as possible as the shift began to spread over his helm. His nose and jaw began to stretch forwards, his dentae becoming much more prominent as they sharpened wickedly. His neck thickened up to support the larger, stronger jaw of his bestial form. Audials forced their way out of his helm and immediately started to flick around as they took in all the sounds of the nighttime warehouse.

The corrupted code had spread throughout his systems entirely at this point. His processor was already fighting to remove the it, but the sheer volume was overwhelming his higher processor functions. He resisted the urge to howl, the thought of where he was tempering his thoughts slightly.

His audials flicked as he heard a strange noise outside his room. Someone was trying to get into his room. He just had enough sense to leap behind his tree. There was a zap as the lock was shocked from the other side, causing the door to swing open.

“He isn't even here! We just got back and he's already gone again!” Bumblebee basically yelled.

“Come on Bumblebee, Prowl wouldn't like that we're in here, especially as he isn't here...” Bulkhead murmured.

“I don't care what he thinks!” A slightly wicked grin spread over Bumblebee's face as a probably terrible and almost certainly childish idea formed in his processor. “You go back to bossbot, I'll be there in a bit.” Bulkhead hadn't even entered the room, and didn't really need much convincing to leave.

Bumblebee's optics had fallen on the visor to the side of the room and as he made his way over to it Prowl slowly slunk out from behind his tree. He cleared the room in two bounds, slamming the door shut just as Bumblebee bent to pick up the visor. He leapt into the air at the slam with a yell that he would deny he made. He slowly turned around, his most innocent smile on his face as he steeled himself to face a pissed off Prowl. His face fell at the sight of the beast before him, a beast that was slowly stalking towards him.

A dangerous rumble of a larger engine came from Prowl, accompanied by a low growl in his vox. He stared at the small bot who he was currently only recognising as an unwanted intruder to his private space. He lunged, his claws wide with the intent to trap so that he could bite and maul this bright annoyance.

“P-...Prowl?” Bee asked quietly as the black and gold beast stared at him. When it lunged he flinched away with a short burst of static from his vox. There was a small crack as he moved that made the beast still. Slowly the beast lowered its head to stare at his pedes and after a few moments Bee's gaze followed to see Prowl's visor snapped in half under his pede. Gingerly Bumblebee lifted his pede and took a step to the side. The movement made the beast's gaze instantly jump back to him and he flinched again. But the beast just made an annoyed sounding chuff, using its snout to shepherd him towards the door.

Taking the hint Bumblebee took a faltering step, then bolted straight for the door. The beast followed after him in lazy bounds, once again slamming the door behind him. Bumblebee ran all the way to his room, slammed the door, dived onto his berth and curled up, his hands covering his helm. Then came a quiet knock from the door.

“Are you alright, Bumblebee?” came Prime's voice through the door.

“Course Bossbot! I'm great! Just need to recharge, been a long day. I'll see you in the morning!”

“Al– Alright. If you're sure, comm me if you need anything.” Bee listened to the Prime's pedesteps retreat from the door. He simply lay there, thinking about Prowl and the beast that he apparently was. He knew he wasn't getting any recharge tonight.

Prowl however was feeling more relaxed than he normally did. He was content to just sit as high in his tree as the branches could support him and simply stare at the world around him, the city, its cars, the trees, any wildlife he could see, the stars, the moon, he simply watched.

It was a surprisingly short time later that Prowl felt his processor beginning to work faster again. He leapt out of the tree as he felt his strength beginning to drain. There was a creaking sound as his pedes returned to normal and his tyres returned. He felt the satisfying feeling of the corrupted code being purged from his processor, followed immediately by the overwhelming need to recharge. He simply flopped sideways onto the floor and fell into recharge.


	2. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl and Bumblebee catch up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **::** this text here **::** is when they're talking on comm.

When Prowl awoke the next morning the first thing he did was comm Bumblebee.

**::** Prowl! You're–... Hi **::**

**::** Please come to my room, Bumblebee **::**

**::** No thanks! Tell you what, I'll stay here and I promise to never go in your room again! **::**

**::** Bumblebee, you broke my visor, I can't see very well without it, I need you to get Ratchet to fix it **::**

**::**...Right. Um... sure... I'll... I'll be right there **::** Bumblebee hadn't recharged all night and it showed on his face. His optics were dimmer than usual and all of his movements were slightly sluggish. When he arrived at Prowl's door he knocked quietly, but the broken lock meant the door just swung open. Bumblebee didn't know what he was expecting to see, but seeing Prowl in his meditative pose at the base of his tree was far too normal to have crossed his mind. Bumblebee opened his mouth to start talking but Prowl cut him off without even opening his optics.

“Bumblebee, get my visor fixed please,” he indicated where the visor had been left the night before. Bumblebee picked up the two halves of the visor and dashed out of the room again. He paused at the door frame, peering back through at Prowl. He had remained completely still, by all appearances he was simply meditating as if nothing had changed. Bumblebee hadn't realised he was staring until Prowl suddenly moved, revealing optics that weren't Autobot blue but instead a bright mauve. “I need my visor Bumblebee.”

“Right. Right, of course. I'll... I'll get it to Ratchet.” Prowl returned to his meditative position and Bumblebee finally left to go find Ratchet.

 

Ratchet was, as per usual, in the medbay area of the warehouse. Bumblebee was fiddling with the two halves of the visor as he watched Ratchet working on something.

“What do you want Bumblebee?” Ratchet said without taking his optics off his work.

“Oh, hey Ratchet. I...” Bumblebee paused for a moment before he could come up with an excuse. “I pranked Prowl but I accidentally broke his visor. I need to get it fixed before he realises.”

“Uh-huh. And how did you manage to take his visor without him realising?” Ratchet still continued his work.

“Uh...”

“Whatever kid, give it here, I'll see what I can do.” Ratchet finally turned around, holding his hand out for the visor.

“Thanks, Ratchet.” Bumblebee hovered near Ratchet's shoulder as he began to examine the visor and then weld it. He began to shift from pede to pede, watching Ratchet work.

“Kid, leave me alone. I'll never finish this with you hovering around.”

“Right, right. I'll just leave you to it.” Ratchet grumbled something in response but Bee didn't manage to catch it. So he spun around and began to make his way back to Prowl's room. This time he didn't hover in the doorway, he strode straight into the room and sat down in front of Prowl. Prowl brought a hand to his face and sighed hugely.

“Yes, Bumblebee?”

“So what are you? Some kinda weird triple changer?”

“No, it's... something else.” Prowl narrowed his optics as he looked slightly off to the side. Bee leant sideways so that he was still in Prowl's vision.

“Dude, what's up with your optics?”

“They're purple. They always have been.” He looked up to stare Bumblebee right in the optics. “And why is that your main concern? Last night I could have offlined you.” Prowl didn't mention that he could have passed his condition to Bumblebee.

“Yeah, yeah I know. I couldn't recharge at all last night because of it, but... I mean... It's still... you. And as much as you go off on your own, and as much as we annoy you or you do something weird,” Prowl frowned a little but didn't interrupt. “You always come through for the team.” Prowl tilted his head slightly, leaning lightly on his servo before he spoke.

“As much as that is normally true, you simply don't understand. When I... shift I am not really myself. I would tear you apart coming too close to me, no matter who you are.” He took a slow vent in before continuing. “I honestly don't recall what stopped me from offlining you last night.”

“Well great. Thanks Prowl. That's exactly what I needed to hear. I'm gonna hang with bots that don't want to murder me.” Bumblebee went to stand up but Prowl's servo shot out to grab his wrist before he could rise.

“You must understand, Bumblebee, no one knows about my condition. You can't tell anybody.” Bumblebee paused, glancing from Prowl's hand on his wrist to his stare that was only made more intense by the purple optics. He felt his faceplate begin to heat up, so he turned away, wrenching his wrist out of Prowl's grip before he could notice.

“Well, duh. If I don't know a thing then no one else is gonna know either. I ain't gonna be the bot to spill the beans.” Prowl narrowed his eyes at Bumblebee in scepticism.

“Please return my visor when Ratchet finishes repairing it.”

“Yeah, yeah, Prowl. I know. Get your visor, don't tell anyone. I got it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I headcanon Prowl having purple optics. It was something that set him apart from other bots even before he became a cyberwolf.  
> I should be updating this weekly but I don't know how long it's actually gonna be...


	3. An Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bumblebee isn't sure if he enjoys annoying Prowl anymore.

::Hey Prowl!:: There was a loud ping on his commlink that pulled him straight out of his meditation. He gave a small exvent before ignoring the comm and settling back into his meditation. He'd just begun to get into the correct state of mind when there was another ping to his commlink.  
::Hey Prowl!::  
::I'm trying to meditate Bumblebee, go away::  
::But you didn't tell me anything! You just said that you'd offline me!::  
::Which I would have done. What more do you need to know other than don't come near me if I suddenly disappear::  
::Prowl, you always suddenly disappear. How the slag am I meant to tell what's normal and what's not?:: Prowl exvented again.  
::How about you just leave me alone every time I disappear?:: There was a few kliks of blissful silence. Prowl relaxed slightly, returning to his meditative position.  
::Hey Prowl!:: Prowl felt a small twinge in his t-cog as a few lines of corrupt code bled into his system. His digits lengthened into claws, his dentae sharpened but no other changes took place. Prowl leapt to his pedes, striding to his door and flinging it open to find Bumblebee sat outside in the hall. He sprung to his feet at Prowl's appearance, grinning sheepishly. A growl slipped through Prowl's vox as he leapt forward, trapping Bumblebee's servos against the wall behind him.  
“Bumblebee, if you continue to push me it will end poorly for you...” Prowl's claws dug into Bumblebee's wrists as he bared his dentae slightly.  
Bumblebee was being uncharacteristically silent as his helm thunked against the wall behind him. His optics flicked to the sharpened dentae before a small worried smile spread across his faceplates.  
“Whatcha gonna do Prowl? You gonna scratch me with those digits of yours?” Bumblebee said trying not to let his fear bleed into his vox. Prowl leant in close to Bumblebee's audial.  
“If you don't stop talking...” Bumblebee winced as Prowl's digits sank into his plating, drawing little beads of energon to the surface, “you are going to make this much worse...” Suddenly there was a high voice echoing through the warehouse.  
“Hey Bumblebee! Where are you? You said we'd go racing today!” Prowl could hear Sari's footsteps coming closer. He slowly took his servos away from Bumblebee, whirling around to head back into his room. Bee's servos fell back down to his sides as his plating rose to release the heat that had built up. Sari came around the corner, grinning as she ran up to Bumblebee. “There you are! What are you doing way back here?” Then she noticed the energon slowly dripping to his servos and she reached out to touch him concernedly. As soon as she touched him she pulled back, waving her slightly singed hand. “Yeowch! Why are you so hot? Do I need to use my key?”  
“I'm fine Sari,” Bumblebee said quickly before actually looking down at his wrists. “Actually, do you think you could help me with this?” He bent down, extending both his wrists to Sari. She grinned as she repaired his injuries with a flash. “Thanks, Sari” Bumblebee grinned down at Sari and she grinned back.  
“Of course Bee! You're still hot though, you sure you'll be okay?” Bee transformed and opened his door for Sari to climb in.  
“I'll cool down, it's fine.”  
“Sheesh, not before you boil me in here!” Sari opened his window as he raced out of the warehouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the short chapter. The next one is longer, I promise.


	4. "I'm sorry Bumblebee"

The Allspark fragments always managed to cause havoc no matter where they showed up. So when one appeared in a factory that made electric fans, it wasn't that much of a jump when it started making spinning razor blades of doom (as named by Sari). It was sorting out his mess that left Bumblebee unconscious and leaking energon in a corner of the factory. One of Prowl's shurikens was sent ricocheting towards Bee's frame and Prowl's chassis was sliced open as he leapt in the way. Prowl had a servo over the wound, frowning as his energon slowly dripped onto Bumblebee. That was bad. Prowl backed away from Bumblebee but he suspected the damage had already been done. He knew for a fact that his nanites carried a version of the corrupted code, and if any of them had been read by Bee's system...

Prowl frowned, hoping to Primus that he hadn't infected Bumblebee.

He kept a close eye on Bumblebee for the next couple of weeks, but everything seemed normal. Bumblebee didn't show any discomfort or loss of energy or anything. Then suddenly, Bumblebee was just going out to race, when he grasped at his side and collapsed to the floor.

“Bumblebee!” Sari yelled staring at him vent harshly. “Bumblebee, what's wrong?” Prowl grabbed Bumblebee by the back of the neck and started pulling him towards his room.

“Prowl! What are you doing?” Optimus had heard the shouts and come to investigate.

“Helping him.” Prowl grunted back as he shoved Bumblebee through the door. In his uncoordinated state Bumblebee stumbled and fell onto the floor. Prowl paused in the door long enough to say “Whatever you hear, do not open this door.”

“Prowl!” Optimus said loudly but Prowl simply shut the door in his face and locked it once again.

Bumblebee had quietened a little but was still gripping his t-cog.

“Bumblebee, this... is going to hurt.” Bumblebee suddenly moved his servos away from his chassis and stared at them. Prowl grimaced as he watched Bee's digits elongate and sharpen into claws.

“Prowl?” Bumblebee gasped. “What the slag is happening?”

“Well, you've seen the end result...” Prowl murmured as a spike formed at Bee's elbow and his arms became more slender and dangerous looking. Bumblebee yelled as all his tyres shrank and vanished, his shoulder guards flattening out to become rounded and built more for strength. His pedes had thinned down considerably, rearranging themselves to have an extra pivot point.

“Prowl! You slaghead! You complete aft! Why did you-” Bee cut off his insults with a gasp as the tail slowly began to form and connect into his circuits.

“Bumblebee, listen to me. Stop talking and relax your jaw otherwise the next part is going to be a lot more painful than it has to be.” Bee glared daggers at Prowl, but thankfully heeded the advice. Prowl grimaced as Bee's faceplate began to stretch forward. His dentae became much more prominent, sharpening into vicious points designed for biting through plating. His neck thickened to contain the extra strength for his new jaw. Finally Bee's horns grew larger and began to flick around as they became a pair of audials.

Slowly, Bumblebee got to his new pedes. Prowl was still slightly taller than Bee, even in his new beast form, but he knew how much strength this new form held. Prowl backed off slightly as Bee threw his head back and howled. But even this slight movement had Bee's attention snap to Prowl. Prowl stood motionless as Bee slowly stalked towards him. Bee began sniffing at Prowl, new audials flicking this way and that as his tail swished idly from side to side. After a moment Bee's audials flicked forwards and his tail perked up. He leapt at Prowl, knocking him over and pinning him to the floor.

“Bumblebee? Please get off.” Bumblebee made a happy sort of bark as he shook his head and nuzzled into Prowl's chassis. Prowl smiled gently and began to rub gently between Bee's audials. A gentle rumble started in response to the scratching and Bee gave a pleased chuff.

Suddenly there was a ping to Prowl's commlink as Optimus contacted him

**::** Prowl! What is going on in there? Why isn't Bumblebee answering his comm? Can we come in yet? **::** Prowl sighed as Bumblebee settled down on top of him.

**::** It's a long story. But now would be the best time to try, I suppose. You may open the door but you should wait before actually coming in **::** There was a click from the lock and the door swung open. Everyone was standing in the doorway, peering in with varying levels of concern. The movement attracted Bee's attention and the happy rumbling stopped. He got onto all fours, crouching over Prowl, a growl beginning to build in the depths of his vox.

“No, Bumblebee,” Prowl mumbled quietly, once again reaching up to rub between his audials. The growling quietened but he remained in his tensed position.

“What do you mean Bumblebee?!” Sari yelled. “How is that Bumblebee?” It was only Prowl's continuing contact that stopped Bumblebee from launching himself at the group standing in the doorway.

“Prowl, you seem to understand what's going on here, care to explain it to the rest of us?” Optimus said, wisely keeping his voice low and calm.

Prowl frowned, still reluctant to share his secret, despite the fact that he clearly had no other option.

“So this form,” he indicated Bumblebee, “Is the result of corrupt code in the t-cog. The code spreads, eventually prompting this shift until the code can be purged from the processor. Then the cycle repeats.” Prowl took a slow in vent before continuing. “I know this because Bumblebee got this corrupt code from me.”

“He's not stuck like this forever is he?” Bulkhead asked. Prowl shook his head.

“The first shift can be long, as the processor doesn't know the corrupt code to isolate yet, but he will shift back.” Finally Bumblebee lost interest in the group standing in the doorway so he flopped back down on top of Prowl. When Prowl didn't begin scratching his audials Bee began to nudge Prowl's servo with his muzzle. Prowl frowned again but resumed his scratches. Sari had started creeping forwards, but even that slow encroachment had Bumblebee's gaze flick to her and give a threatening rumble of his engine. Sari froze at the sound, staring at Bumblebee's glare.

“It's not fair! How come he's fine with Prowl and not me?” she whined. Bumblebee's audials flicked at the higher pitched sound, but the rumble died off again as he relaxed against Prowl.

“They have the same code, it allows them to recognise each other,” Ratchet spoke up. Everyone turned to face him and Ratchet shrugged as he watched Bumblebee. “There used to be communities of mechs with coding defects. Never heard of one that did this though.” There was a pause as the younger bots looked at each other and Sari looked non-plussed. Ratchet rolled his optics before continuing. “Well, there's nothing we can do but wait for him to 'shift' back. Send him to me when he's back to normal, Prowl.”

“Will do...” Prowl sighed.


	5. The Comedown

Bumblebee was dreaming. At least he was pretty sure he was. The lack of decent recharge recently had made any recharge he did snatch very strange and often not restful. So as he became aware of being taller, stronger, sharper, simpler... he assumed it was just his processor purging unnecessary data in a strange way. But then a draining feeling, of everything seeping out of him as the world around him came back into focus, made him question it. He felt himself shuddering, feeling his plating rattling against whatever he was lying on. He looked down to see Prowl watching him curiously, concernedly. He then realised that he was lying on top of Prowl so he immediately attempted to roll off of him but Prowl's arms held him still.

“Bumblebee, calm down, you're alright,” it was Prowl's voice. There was a groaning pain in his pedes and shoulders as something reconnected into his awarenet. Then his processor demanded recharge, and Bumblebee could do nothing except lose the outside world once again.

 

When Bumblebee woke up he was still in Prowl's room, except this time he seemed to be alone. He sat up and looked around the room but only saw the closed door and the tree. He stood up to finally notice an awaiting message on his HUD. Opening it he found a message from Optimus.

“Another Allspark fragment appeared and we went to deal with it. Ratchet wants to give you a checkup so wait in the medbay until we get back.” There was another message from Prowl sent shortly after that one.

All it said was “Do not touch anything in my room.” Bumblebee began mumbling low in his vox.

“Stupid Prowl and his stupid things in his stupid room and his stupid ninja stuff and his stupid stupid painful–” Bumblebee cut himself off, gripping at his arms as he recalled the shift. He shuddered, taking a quick glance at his digits to make sure they weren't becoming claws. After a couple of kliks simply staring at his servos Bumblebee finally managed to get them to relax and hang back at his sides.

He suddenly realised he'd just been standing in the middle of the corridor staring at his servos. He hurried off from the spot heading for the medbay. He hovered in the doorway, definitely not worried about how Ratchet would react to him now that he wasn't the same anymore.

“Oh, hey kid. See it finally wore off.” Ratchet paused from working on... whatever he was working on to turn to face Bee. “Get up on the berth and show me your medical port.” Bee had already sat on the edge of the berth, but the mention of his port had him covering it with a servo.

“But... but Ratch... If it's in my code, won't it spread to you too?” Bee mumbled.

“I doubt it, medics have the best firewalls. But if you don't trust them I can do it hands off but you're going to be here longer.” He didn't even wait for Bee to answer, already in the process of searching for his handheld scanner.

“Thanks docbot,” Bumblebee managed a small grin as Ratchet grumbling something that he couldn't catch. “Hey, did you know about Prowl?”

“No one did, I think that was the entire point.” There was a beeping as Ratchet powered on the handheld scanner. Bumblebee tried not to fidget as the beam began to slowly pass over his body. Ratchet did a single pass with the scanner, took a quick glance at the results and then started another scan.

"Come on docbot, can't you hurry this up?" Bee whined as the slightly different coloured beam scanned over him

"You wanted this done the long way kid, so just quiet down while I do my job." Bumblebee shuffled as the beam passed over him for a third time before Ratchet lowered the scanner to see the results. "Everything's fine kid, physically anyway. If you let me check out your code-"

"No thanks! I'm good. I even have proof that I'm fine. So I'm gonna go. See ya!" Bumblebee practically ran from the medbay and back to his room. He didn't emerge for the rest of the day, not when everyone arrived back from their mission, nor when Bulkhead came looking for him, not even when Sari stopped by to check up on him.

It was early evening when Prowl pinged him. It wasn't a long message, it simply said "Open your door, I have energon" Bee grumbled slightly as he slowly plodded to the door, opening it slowly to show Prowl framed in the doorway. He was only holding one cube of energon. He grabbed Bumblebee, pulled him out of his room and gave him a gentle shove towards the main area.

"Your energon is in there. Talk to everyone, otherwise they will worry." He didn't say anything else, didn't even wait for Bee to respond, he just headed towards his room. Bee watched him leave before turning back towards the main area. He paused in his spot for a moment, still feeling unready to face everyone, when a  _Low Fuel_ alert flashed up on his HUD. He took a slow vent in before coming out into the open area.

Almost instantly everyone else was around him, welcoming him back, asking if he was fine, even passing him his energon, wanting to talk, wanting to still be friends with him. And Bumblebee, despite himself, smiled.


	6. Transform or Shift?

“Come on Bumblebee! We haven't gone racing in forever!” Prowl could hear Sari from inside his own room. Prowl frowned, opening his door so that he could hear Bumblebee's response.

“It's only been two days, and I just don't feel like it.” Slowly Prowl started making his way to the main hall. He watched for a moment from the doorway as Bumblebee convinced Sari to stay and play video games. Prowl saw the worried expression on Sari's face as Bumblebee turned to settle on the sofa, but it vanished as soon as he turned back to her.

**::** Bumblebee, have you even transformed into vehicle mode yet? **::** Prowl saw Bumblebee pause at the comm, then glance down at his digits for a klik.

“Bumblebee? I need to talk to you for a moment.” Bumblebee flinched slightly as Prowl's voice snapped him out of his slight daze.

“I'll talk to you later Prowl, I'm about to whip Sari at Super Racing Team Go!”

“You wish!”

“No, now Bumblebee.”

“But Prowl–” Bumblebee began, but Prowl didn't even let him finish, he simply grabbed him by the shoulder-tyre and began to drag him back to his room. “Ow! Prowl! Get off!”

Bumblebee was trailing along after Prowl, although still resisting the pull every now and then. Prowl closed the door behind them, then slowly turned to face Bumblebee.

“Bumblebee, there's nothing wrong with your t-cog.” Bumblebee's servo went to hover over his t-cog. To prove his point Prowl transformed to his vehicle mode and back. “This code, the shifts, you're still the same bot.” Bumblebee continued to run his servo over his t-cog.

“Can I go play video games now?” Prowl narrowed his optics.

“No. Transform. Now.” Bumblebee turned to leave but Prowl flung a shuriken between him and the door. Bee whirled around bringing out his stingers and taking aim at Prowl. Prowl leapt forwards, getting low to the ground to avoid the twin blasts aimed in his direction. He sprung up sending a decoy around to the left as he leapt over Bee's head. With one arm around Bee's throat, he restrained both of his wrists and simply held them.

“What the slag Prowl! Let me go!” Bee yelled, writhing and trying to escape.

“Get out of it yourself...” Prowl grunted back. Bumblebee continued to struggle for a few moments before he gave one long pull against Prowl before folding down into vehicle mode. When Prowl saw Bumblebee begin to transform he leapt backwards towards the door, Prowl tried to keep the small satisfied smile off his face as Bee transformed several times. He turned back to Prowl with a huge grin on his face.

“Hey Prowl, wanna race?” Bumblebee raised an eyebrow challengingly.

“No thank you Bumblebee, although I'm sure Sari would be thrilled.”

Bee dashed past Prowl, through the door and straight back to Sari. Then Prowl heard the squeal of tyres as Bumblebee raced away from the warehouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter did not like me. It sat there stubbornly and refused to do anything more interesting. Sorry it's so short, stuff will actually happen in the next chapter, I swear.


	7. A Nice Shift Out In The Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl is more prepared this time and retreats to the woods for his next shift.

Blitzwing was simply out for a midnight flight, although not a part of his original code he felt the need to fly as much as any seeker. It was as he was enjoying some freefall that he noticed the ninja bot, off on his own sneaking into the forest outside the city. Blitzwing pulled out of his freefall earlier than he normally would have so that he could track the autobot through the trees. It was easier than usual with this bot, so he either didn't know Blitzwing was there or he was leading the tactician into a trap.

When Prowl stopped in a clearing Blitzwing stood in the trees peering at him. He tilted his head curiously as the autobot seemed to double over in pain. He zoomed in with his monocle as the ninja's frame began to shift and warp. He appeared to be turning into some sort of beast. Blitzwing's face changed to that of his more sadistic and unstable personality, but even that small noise attracted the attention of the beast-bot. It began to growl, its engine rumbling threateningly.

Blitzwing gave a bark of laughter, rumbling his own engine as he broke through into the clearing. He even grinned as he growled back. The beast almost immediately launched itself at Blitzwing's throat, claws and dentae at the ready. The speed of the attack caught Blitzwing by surprise, and although he leant away from the attack the claws still scratched across his neck. Blitzwing's servo shot out and managed to catch the beast by the pede. A short whine escaped the beast as it thrashed to try and escape. Suddenly it curled up in his servo, its claws sinking into his arm and servo while its dentae sank into wrist. The dentae sank straight through his plating, digging into the cables and lines underneath.

Blitzwing tightened his grip, feeling the plating in his servo beginning to crumple even as his own energon splattered out onto the beast. It finally let go with a sharp bark and Blitzwing took the opportunity to transfer the beast to his other servo, this time trapping its claws at its sides. It began to writhe, snapping its jaws at him as its tail thrashed against his servo. Blitzwing grinned as it continued to snarl and gnash. He bent down, sinking his own razor-sharp dentae into the beast's shoulder. He felt its energon splash over his tongue as it threw its head back in a howl. Blitzwing grinned again, the action grinding his dentae further into the shoulder, cutting off the howl.

Suddenly Blitzwing gasped at a sharp pain on his faceplate. He pulled away, feeling his faceplate to find a small chunk missing. The beast seemed to be grinning as energon dripped from its dentae. It kicked at his faceplate catching him harshly on the chin. Blitzwing finally dropped the beast and it landed on its partially crushed pede. It didn't slow it down much though, while Blitzwing was still shaking his head it leapt out of the clearing and into the woods.

Blitzwing snarled at the empty clearing, his face switching to his angry persona. His cannons swung down, fire pouring out and igniting all the trees. The flames spread, leaping from tree to tree, threatening to engulf the entire forest. He heard the sound of sirens in the distance. His face switched back to his blue one, and after a few moments he changed into his jet mode zooming back to wherever the Decepticons hid.

Optimus had arrived with the human fire department in order to help. As they fought their way through the flames they came across the clearing and the energon that was splattered everywhere. Optimus began to deviate from the main group of fire fighters, trying to follow the faint splatters of energon. After a while of walking around the woods he finally came across Prowl.

“Prowl...” Optimus called quietly. He twitched where he lay a quiet growl in his vox. Optimus bent down, examining the injuries he could see. One pede looked completely crushed, and there was energon leaking from some gashes across his shoulder. There was also energon on his claws and dentae but as they looked uninjured Optimus could safely presume they were somebody else's.

“Prowl? Can I come closer?” Prowl growled again, although there wasn't much force behind it.

**::** Ratchet? I've found Prowl and he needs medical attention **::** Optimus commed Ratchet, immediately following it with a ping of his co-ordinates.

**::** If he's still in his 'shift' don't get too close to him, I don't want to have to repair both of you... **::** Optimus was currently ignoring this warning, slowly inching closer to the curled up form of Prowl. He was whimpering in pain, but not actively aggressive towards the advancing Prime. Optimus reached out a servo, but this snapped Prowl's gaze to Optimus. He stilled his servo, eyes locked with Prowl's.

“Prowl? Let me help you...” Prowl intake was slightly open in a snarl and Optimus flinched back at the accompanying a wave of danger. He dropped his servo, bowing his head as he moved back, content to just sit there with Prowl.

Prowl's optics offlined as he curled up tighter. Optimus' field flared in concern, trying to comfort Prowl. Prowl whined slightly, an audial flicking in response.

**::** I'm nearly there kid. Just a warning that Bumblebee is ahead of me, make sure he doesn't make things worse **::**

Prowl's head perked up, audials flicking towards a sound that Optimus couldn't hear. Bumblebee burst through the undergrowth and Prowl tried to get up. Bee rushed over to Prowl's side, his servos on his chassis to stop him from moving. Bumblebee glanced at Prowl's pede and shoulder, trying not to touch them even as Prowl tried to lean in to Bee's frame.

“You're gonna be alright, Prowl” Bee murmured. Prowl whimpered, leaning his muzzle against Bee's chest. Bee rubbed between his audials and Prowl gave a low contented rumble. Ratchet appeared through the bushes, standing next to Optimus and watching the scene.

“Kid insisted on coming, I figured he'd be the best to keep Prowl calm. I don't think there's anything we can do until he changes back.”

“It's happening now, bossbot” came Bee's voice. Everyone turned to watch as Prowl began to shudder. His frame was shrinking, the tail slowly disappearing segment by segment as his helm shrank back to its usual proportions. His wounds however only seemed to have deepened, his wheel reappearing crushed in its housing. The first thing Prowl did however was hold out his hand to Bumblebee, who looked confused for a moment before handing back his visor. No sooner had Prowl reattached it than he fell backwards into recharge.

“So, how do we get him back to the warehouse?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my headcanon for Blitzwing is that he started off as a tank, and then near the tail end of the war he was captured and experimented on by the Autobots, making him into a triplechanger. The experiments were also what fractured his mind.


	8. The Beast with Three Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blitzwing faces the consequences of his battle with Prowl

It had been a few days since his tangle the little beast-Prowl, and Blitzwing hadn't felt quite right today. He'd had his injuries patched up – or as much as they could in the mines – but it almost felt like when his seeker coding was acting up. He was having a conversation about it with himself, but when Random came out to voice his opinion there was a sharp stab of pain in his t-cog.

His servo went to it immediately, his time in the labs jumping to the forefront of his processor. It wasn't with fear, more confusion that he watched his digits elongate into sharp claws. He fell onto his berth as he felt his treads shortening, pulling his ankle joints up as his pedes extended. He flexed his new legs, all the joints bent the same way, they were simply arranged differently. Then he shuddered as something connected to his awarenet at the very base of his spinal strut. He lifted his arm, trying to twist and see what was there. There was a small movement of... a tail?

It was then that he understood what was happening; this was the same shift the ninja-bot had gone through. He grunted in pain as it felt like someone was pulling out his cannons, even as the armaments on his shoulders smoothened out into sharp points. Then he felt like his faceplate beginning to shift and he automatically clenched his jaw against the pain. It felt like every cable in his jaw was being pulled to the point of snapping as his face pushed forwards, his already razor sharp dentae splitting and multiplying. He felt his neck thicken up and he could feel his helmet doing something strange but he couldn't work out what. Then everything stopped.

He stood up, making his way to the closest thing he had to a mirror. His face was almost exactly the same shape as the autobot's had been, except the inside of his mouth still glowed red. His helmet had fused with his thickened neck, framing his new face in tan. The new audials on the top of his helm flicked this way and that. He felt a chuckle building in his chassis, but somewhere between his processor and his vox it turned into a long howl that echoed around the mines.

Megatron appeared suddenly at Blitzwing's door, his sword already in his hand. When he saw the beast Blitzwing was he froze, optics fixed on Blitzwing's.

“No Lugnut, stay back. It's Blitzwing, he's a cyberwolf...”

“Oh, is zat what it's called?” The sound of Blitzwing's vox made Megatron jump.

“Yes... it's a coding condition that's linked to the t-cog.” Megatron frowned as he replied.

“So it was zis coding that I was feeling...” Blitzwing offlined his optics as he tried to recall the feeling the code had given him. He gave a full-formed shudder as the shift began to reverse.

Soon he was standing in his root mode again. His face switched back to that of Icy as Megatron put his sword away again.

“That is not how that coding is meant to make mechs act...”

“Vell, it started in my t-cog. Maybe because my t-cog was altered the coding doesn't affect me the same way.”

“As good an explanation as any...” Megatron mused, beginning to return to whatever he'd been doing before Blitzwing's howl. “Just, no more howling in the mine.” Blitzwing's face changed back to Random and he grinned widely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few chapters are a tad short, sorry about that.


	9. Taking Notice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl wakes up after his encounter with Blitzwing

Prowl awoke suddenly in the medbay, sitting up sharply then regretting it as he felt the pull on new welds in his shoulder. He hissed in pain before gingerly feeling the welds.

“Leave those alone,” came a gruff voice from across the room, making Prowl flinch slightly.

“How long have I been out?”

“Good few days. Gonna be here a good few more while I repair that pede.” Prowl looked down at his pede, it didn't hurt as much as it had but it was still looked bad. Prowl sighed as Ratchet came over, laying back down on the berth with a small thunk. “Medical port,” Ratchet demanded. Reluctantly Prowl exposed his port, but he stilled Ratchet's servo before he could connect.

“Do be careful, I don't know how much of my code could infect you.” Ratchet rolled his optics before connecting into his medical port.

“You do realise that medics' firewalls are designed around connecting to patients who might have corrupt code? Now let me do my job.” Ratchet worked in silence for a while, slowly opening the plating and straightening out or simply replacing the cables and lines underneath before straightening out the plating and reattaching it. “So what happened out there?” Prowl retrieved a small piece of plating he'd stored in his subspace; it was black plating with red biolights on the inside.

“Blitzwing. He found me as I shifted and we fought.” He threw the plating onto the nearby table. “His more unstable facet decided to actually bite me,” Prowl gestured to his shoulder. Ratchet frowned as he turned to look at Prowl.

“Judging by the state of your nanites it's very likely that he'd have this code too. The last thing that mech needs is more corrupt code.”

“No disagreements there.” It was at that moment that Bumblebee burst into the medbay.

“Prowl! You're awake!” He stared at his medical port and Ratchet's cable that was connected into it. “Wha... what are you doing? Are you trying to infect everyone?!” He stormed over looking like he fully intended to yank the cable out of his port. Prowl grabbed Bumblebee's wrist, glaring up at him.

“Bumblebee, I'm sorry I infected you, but you can't act like you're going to offline anyone you touch. Ratchet knows what he's doing.” Prowl actually heard Bee's cooling fans click as he overrode their attempt to turn on. He wrenched his wrist of of Prowl's grip, backing away a few steps as his servo went to cover where Prowl had been touching him.

“Shut up Prowl,” he muttered before almost running out of the room again. Ratchet chuckled lightly as Prowl lay back against the berth again. A few moments later Prowl got a comm from Bumblebee.

 **::** I'm glad you're alright **::** Prowl sighed.

“You're gonna have to deal with that at some point,” Ratchet said lightly.

“I am aware.”


	10. Primusdammit

Ratchet was, as per usual, working in the medbay rather than in recharge. It was as he moved for the first time in a few hours that he realised something felt off in his code. He immediately plugged himself into a simple diagnostic computer to find the problem. He skim read the code as the machine parsed everything, then froze as recognised some of it. He immediately began typing, trying to siphon off the corrupt code, but even as he continued to work he felt a sharp stab in his t-cog. He continued trying to work even as his digits began to sharpen and elongate. He managed to delete a section of the code as his arms were gaining mass from somewhere. He winced, lifting his pedes off the floor as his wheels disappeared, his legs gaining another pivot point. Another segment of code was deleted as his other set of wheels disappeared too. He finally took his servos away from the keyboard as he felt the new segments of a tail connecting into his circuits. He felt the cables in his jaw beginning to pull taut so he allowed them to slacken as he tried to relax his face. His face and jaw were pushing forwards, his dentae sharpening and elongating, creating jagged points around his entire intake. He felt his neck gaining mass too, jaw cables thickening to strengthen his bite. He felt something pushing out from his helm, he realised they were audials as they began to flick around, picking up sounds in the warehouse he had never noticed before.

Ratchet scratched idly at the hole of his missing emp generator as he got off his chair and headed for the berth. He felt surprisingly clear-headed and he could only assume it had been the segments of code he'd been able to delete reducing the strain on his processor as it purged the rest of the corrupt code. His audials flicked as he heard someone stop in the doorway of the medbay. He lifted his helm to see Prowl standing there.

“I hate it when Bumblebee is right...” Prowl sighed as he approached where Ratchet was laying. Ratchet gave an annoyed chuff as well, letting his helm rest on the berth again. “Are you alright?” Prowl asked gently as he placed a servo on Ratchet's back. Ratchet tilted his head towards his diagnostic machine where the code had been left on the screen. Prowl quietly moved around to peer at the screen and a few moments later he realised what it was. “That is exceedingly clever.” There was a pause as Prowl rested his hand on Ratchet again. “I'm sorry I did this to you.” Ratchet's engine gave a quiet rumble as he gave a gentle chuff. Prowl reached to scratch between his audials, at first Ratchet tried to shrug the contact off, but when Prowl persisted he accepted that it did feel pretty nice.

Prowl stayed with Ratchet for the rest of the night, he didn't say a lot, in fact quite a lot of the time he was simply meditating but Ratchet appreciated the company all the same. He found that he couldn't really recharge, but he was content to just rest. When the first rays of sunlight broke through the window Ratchet felt like something was draining out of him. He stretched out, relaxing just as his frame began to shift back. He winced a couple of times as his wheels reappeared but he remained pretty relaxed as his chassis returned to normal. Ratchet lay back against the berth, his optics already offline.

“I can keep an optic on my code, if I can't prevent the shifts I can at least delay them.” Ratchet said as Prowl approached the berth.

“I'd rather not tell Bumblebee about this...” Prowl murmured, Ratchet simply snorted.

“I won't tell him but he may recognise that I have it anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was once again inspired by a picture by JazzTheTiger (( http://jazzthetiger.deviantart.com/art/Werewolf-Ratchet-555194889 ))  
> So I couldn't resist adding yet another transformation scene ^^


	11. On Unease and Anger

Bumblebee was actively avoiding Prowl at the moment. Not only because he was almost certain that Prowl had heard his cooling fans turn on but he was still angry that he's been infected with the stupid code anyway. The frustrating thing was he was always felt the most relaxed around Prowl. He'd noticed how his plating would rise slightly whenever he was around anyone else. Even just hanging out with Sari made something prickle in his protoform. It was when he'd injured his servo and he was in the medbay that he was taken aback by the absence of this feeling. He looked around to check that Ratchet was still in the room, but he was. Bee tilted his head as he puzzled it out.

“You alright there kid? Your servo acting up again?” Ratchet asked as he noticed Bumblebee staring at him.

“What, no it's fine.” Bumblebee flexed his servo, the new welds pulled a little but didn't break. “I just...” Bee paused. He certainly didn't have the same feelings to Ratchet as he did to Prowl – which is nothing, he feels nothing towards Prowl – but he didn't feel what he felt around everyone else. “I actually feel better than normal...”

“Great kid, but if your welds are holding we're done here.”

“Do... do I have to?” Bee asked quietly. Ratchet gave Bumblebee a look out the side of his optics.

“Go back and relax with everyone else Bumblebee.” Ratchet smirked slightly as he turned to face Bumblebee. “Or you can go talk to Prowl, I'm sure you'll enjoy that.” Bumblebee felt his faceplate heat as he jumped off the berth as if it had shocked him.

“Sh- shut up Ratchet!” It was as Bumblebee reached the door that the thought finally struck him. “He infected you, didn't he? When you were connected to him he– I can't believe him!”

“Kid, I'd already patched in as soon as we got him back here. Prowl had no control on what code transferred in that state, so don't you dare blame him. He blames himself enough for you already, you don't need to go making everything worse for him.”

“Worse for him!? He's ruined my life!” Bumblebee yelled.

“Calm down kid, your life has hardly changed at all.”

“Cut the slag docbot! I have code that turns me into a monster!”

“So? You're still online, you don't have to worry about the Council hunting you down because of a 'defect' you can't control, you still have friends and you even have bots that can help you through this. That is significantly more than Prowl would have had when he first got this code...” This gave Bumblebee enough to think on that he sort of froze in the doorway.

“Whatcha mean docbot?”

“You're just too young, kid. You don't understand what Cybertron was like before the war. I'm just making assumptions o'course, you should ask Prowl, he'll be able to tell you the whole story.” Bumblebee rubbed the back of his helm, suddenly feeling sheepish for losing his temper.

“Sorry Ratchet,” he mumbled.

“Are your welds still holding?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Then why are you still in my medbay?” Bumblebee was prepared to argue about it but Ratchet picked up a wrench that was nearby, tossing it over once in his hand. This had Bee all but fleeing from the room.


	12. The Nightmare

He felt something warm on his claws and in his intake. There was a slow drip coming from somewhere, the plink, plink sound of something dropping onto a hard surface. There was a screeching wheeze of a fan grating in its housing and the harsh smell of coolant slowly permeating the air. His audials flicked at the sound of something small scurrying around his home. He stalked almost silently towards the sound, tracking its small gasps and quiet sniffles. He leapt easily at the sound, catching the small thing in his dentae. There was a shriek, wriggling and a cry of “Bumblebee” just before he crunched down. The movements stopped as a warm liquid that wasn't energon flooded his mouth. He dropped the dead thing in the debris he was standing in. He spat the fluid out of his mouth, looking down to see what he'd found. At his feet he saw the greyed dismantled frame of Optimus, a little way off to the left he saw Bulkhead's servo – not even fully faded yet. And lying between them, small and broken – with hair still a brilliant red – was Sari.

Bumblebee onlined screaming. He brought his servos to his intake, fighting the need to purge as he sat up on the berth. He felt coolant begin to build up in his optics as the images replayed themselves in his processor. He grabbed his own horns as he curled up into a ball, cooling fans on high as the coolant began to slip out of his optics. He sat there shuddering, drawing in large gasps of air to help his fans cool his systems down.

There was a quiet knock at the door followed by a small voice that said “Bumblebee, I'm coming in...” Bumblebee snapped upright, turning away from the door to hide his face. There was a small click of the door opening, and then closing as Prowl almost silently stepped into the room. He slowly made his way across the room, not saying a word as he sat down on the berth next to Bee. Bumblebee didn't say anything either, just fought to try and stop the coolant running down his face. Bumblebee sensed more than saw the movement next to him, but at the small noise of something being placed on the berth he turned to glance at Prowl out of the corner of his optic. Prowl had removed his visor, those purple optics staring at Bumblebee with nothing but concern and what looked like guilt in their depths. “You offlined someone, didn't you?” Prowl said quietly. Bumblebee still couldn't bring himself to say anything but his ventilations caught for a moment. “Soon after my first shift I had a purge where I offlined everyone at the dojo. No remorse, no mercy, just... death.” Prowl placed his servo on the berth between himself and Bumblebee. “Remember Bumblebee, it's only a data purge.” Bumblebee grasped at the servo needily, moving it out of the way so that he could lean against Prowl's chassis.

“It was Prime and Bulkhead...” Bee murmured into Prowl's chassis. Prowl put an arm around his back as he shuddered. “And... and Sari–” Bumblebee's voice cut out with a pinch of static. He just clung to Prowl as his ventilations began to pick up again.

“Slow it down Bumblebee. Concentrate on just venting. In...” Prowl ran his servo up Bee's back. “And out again...” He ran it back down. Bee's body went slightly stiff at the contact, but he followed the rhythm of vents. They just sat there like that for a while, and slowly but surely Bee's ventilations came back under control, and the coolant stopped leaking from his optics.

“Hey, Prowl? Is this what it was like for you?” Prowl's servo stilled on Bee's back and he met Bee's optics before turning away.

“My first shift happened in the dojo. Master Yoketron trapped me in one of the side rooms, kept everyone else away. When I shifted back I stayed for a while, everything almost felt like it was back to normal. Then, amongst other things, I had a data purge like that... So I left the dojo, went out on my own.” Bumblebee had mostly calmed down at this point, he was still somewhat clinging to Prowl. They sat there in silence for a while more as Bee slowly processed the information.

“Thanks Prowl...” Bee murmured. Prowl reached sideways, picking up his visor from the berth and reattaching it. He slowly began to extricate himself from Bumblebee's grasp.

“I am sorry Bumblebee. I never meant for anyone to find out, let alone infect anyone else...” Bumblebee frowned as Prowl headed for the door.

“So you were just gonna put up with that feeling? The unease or hunted or whatever it is you would call it that I get around everyone else...” Prowl paused at the door before replying.

“Why do you think I spent so much time off on my own?”

“Are you still going to?” Prowl paused in the doorway.

“I had... forgotten how it feels to be at ease around other bots...” He glanced back to Bumblebee staring at him, giving him a small smile before closing the door behind him. Bumblebee felt his faceplate heating again, and where his chassis was still warm from his nightmare his cooling fans immediately clicked on to a higher setting. Bumblebee groaned as he flopped back onto the berth.

He didn't like Prowl like that, he really didn't... he really, really didn't. It had to be because they both had the same monster coding. Bumblebee put a servo over his face as he exvented. He needed to go back to hanging out with Bulkhead and Sari and not thinking about Prowl – not that he thought about Prowl any more than he thought about the rest of the team.

…

Primusdammit.


	13. Surprise Inspection (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Steel Haven touches down in Detroit, bringing with it a whole bunch of problems.

Optimus was mostly relaxing as he studied the monitors, it had been a swelteringly hot day and everyone had been relaxing in the main hanger attempting to keep cool – even Prowl had been relaxing with everyone. He was just contemplating leaving the monitors for a while to get some more coolant when a transmission suddenly popped up. Optimus sighed as he pulled the transmission on-screen. Sentinel's large chin appeared centre screen and Optimus instinctively sat up straight.

“Ah, Optimus, I see you're still doing the grunt work,” Sentinel sneered.

“Sentinel, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Optimus just managed not to roll his optics.

“Straight to the point, I see. What's the matter Optimus, got something more important to do than talk to an old pal?”

“Of course not, I just thought your time must be more important than to spend talking to me.” Sentinel's antennae perked up slightly at the ego boost.

“Well obviously. But as we're in the area, we are going to be dropping in on you and your repair bots any day now for an inspection. And you'd better be perfect or you can bet Ultra Magnus is going to hear about it.” Sentinel didn't even have the courtesy to wait for Optimus to respond, he simply ended the transmission. Optimus sat there slightly dumbfounded and annoyed for a minute or so until it dawned on him that he had to tell the rest of the team. Just as he stood up to leave the monitors a short message appeared on the screen.

_It should be about 3 days – Jazz._

 

It was exactly 3 days later that the Steel Haven pinged the warehouse as it began its descent into Detroit. Optimus had alerted the city that they were coming and had managed to clear an area of the park for them to land in. Optimus and Ratchet drove out to meet them, arriving at the park just as the Steel Haven descended through the clouds. They transformed, watching as it slowly landed on the grass. There was a short delay before the ramp extended, and for some reason Sentinel was already standing proud and ready at the top with Jetfire and Jetstorm standing just behind his shoulders. Ratchet exvented as Sentinel slowly began to descend the ramp, puffing out his chest and his chin held high.

“Sentinel, good to see you got here safe,” Optimus greeted him, managing to keep his tone pleasant despite his exasperation at his old friend.

“Despite the increased Decepticon activity in the outer quadrants, with me as captain it could never go any other way.” Sentinel smirked. Optimus resisted the urge to exvent, instead he smiled placatingly.

“So why are you in charge of inspecting my team Sentinel?” Optimus asked and Sentinel's smirk shifted to a sneer.

“Because I was the closest, and because I know you,” was his terse reply before he took a step forward so he was right in Optimus' face. Ratchet stiffened next to him as Sentinel continued. “So now I get to report back every little bad decision you've made since you got to this organic infested mudball.”

“So protecting local lifeforms and thwarting decepticon plans are somehow bad decisions are they?” Ratchet was glaring at Sentinel.

“That's what we're here to sort out, my mech.” Jazz had appeared out of nowhere and was smiling relaxedly behind the Jettwins. “Now is there a reason we're standing around? I need to feel the road beneath my tyres, and I'm sure the twins need a flight.” The twins didn't actually say anything, but they did exchange a glance before looking back to Sentinel with slight puppy dog optics.

“Right. I want all of you on thorough patrols around the city. Report back anything suspicious to me and meet at the local base in two hours.” Sentinel rattled off.

“Sir, yes sir!” the twins yelled in unison with matching salutes before launching themselves into the air and zooming off.

Jazz gave his own “On it, Prime” before transforming with a flourish and disappearing deeper into the city.

“Well let's get going so I can get off this planet and in a solvent bath as fast as possible.” As he turned away from Sentinel Optimus finally succumbed to the temptation to roll his optics. Optimus transformed, waiting for Sentinel to catch up.

“Do try and obey traffic laws this time,” Ratchet said as he transformed behind Optimus. Optimus caught Sentinel's brief look of shock, followed by an indignant huff before he transformed and cut in front of Ratchet as they began to drive off.

 

When they were about halfway back to the warehouse when Optimus got a ping from Prowl.

 **::** Is Sentinel coming to the warehouse with you? **::**

 **::** Yes, we're about 10 minutes away. Why? **::**

There was a few seconds of silence before a reply came through.

 **::** I am about to have a shift, and I don't have enough time to get away from the city **::** Optimus had felt awkward about Prowl's condition ever since he found out about it. He'd never heard of such a thing before, and for all of his life on Cybertron everyone he'd seen had been normal like him. He tried to be the same to Prowl but reminders like this would catch him off guard and leave him unsure how to react.

 **::** Oh. Umm, is there... is there anything you can do? **::** he finally replied.

 **::** I may be able to slow it down if I am left alone to meditate **::** There was a pause and Optimus imagined he could almost hear Prowl exvent. **::** I shall lock myself in my room again, just keep him out **::**

 

It was with mounting apprehension that Optimus arrived at the warehouse. He was relieved to find the main area almost exactly as he'd left it; Bumblebee was on the makeshift sofa watching TV and Bulkhead was in the corner painting.

“So where do you want this inspection to start Sentinel?” Optimus asked.

“It started as soon as we arrived, and you're already doing badly. What exactly do they think they're doing?” Optimus' face hardened at the question and Bumblebee muted the TV to watch Sentinel over the back of the sofa.

“They are not on duty today so they are using their down time by relaxing the the common room of their own base.” Optimus spoke slightly harsher than he normally did, but Sentinel didn't really seem to be listening. He simply rolled his optics and began to move across the room.

“Well I'm certain there's something constructive they could be doing. Now where is your main communication system?”

After a lengthy time of looking through their comm logs, the rest of the so-called inspection continued in the same vein as it had begun. Sentinel would enter a room, discover (or create) something that was wrong, blame it on Optimus and ignore his – perfectly reasonable – explanations. When they reached the door to Prowl's room Optimus moved slightly further ahead of Sentinel and barred the door.

“You don't want to go in there,” he warned as Sentinel opened his intake, no doubt to order Optimus to step aside.

“Oh? Got something in there you don't want me to see? Something against the Autobot code?” Sentinel grinned in a satisfied way with a strangely determined glint to his optic.

“No, nothing like that...” Optimus began, his processor working furiously to come up with a suitable excuse.

“Then let me in. Show me!” Sentinel started to push forward for the door.

“If he wants to get covered in sap you should just let him,” came Bumblebee's voice from behind Sentinel. Sentinel whipped around, glaring down at Bumblebee.

“Covered in what?” he barked.

“Apparently it's called sap,” Bumblebee pressed his servos together to demonstrate how they were sticking together. “The giant tree Prowl has is flowering, which apparently means it leaks this sticky gunk that just gets everywhere.” Bee did a slow 360 to show how his chassis was almost completely covered in sap. Throughout the entire show Sentinel's face had been slowly morphing into one of complete revulsion. Optimus smiled slightly as he stepped aside to expose the door again.

“But of course you're absolutely right Sentinel. You need to check every room.”

“No, no, I'll I'll take your word for it. Let's just move on.” Sentinel strode past the door towards the rest of the warehouse being slightly less thorough with his searching now.

 **::** Good job, Bumblebee. What even is that stuff? **::** Optimus pinged Bumblebee.

::Thanks bossbot. It's just glue I borrowed from Bulkhead. The sap thing was Prowl's idea. Just get that slaghead out of here **::**

Sentinel had just finished his inspection and circled back to the main room when the Jettwins landed just inside the doors.

“Sentinel Prime sir!” they saluted again.

“We is being flying all over the city–” Jetfire began.

“But we isn't seeing any decepticon communication receivers–”Jetstorm continued.

“Or any decepticons!” Jetfire finished.

“I didn't see anything either, so either they're somewhere else or they have cloaking devices.” Jazz joined in, appearing from nowhere once again and making Sentinel jump slightly.

“Then let's get back to the ship and start scanning for them.” Sentinel said, already halfway towards the exit.

“Couldn't we just do that from here?” Jazz queried.

“With this outdated scrap? We probably couldn't even pick up a Cybertronian in the middle of the city!” Sentinel stormed out of the warehouse and the Jettwins happily followed behind him. Jazz however turned to Optimus.

“Where's Prowl? I wanted to talk but he isn't answering his comm.” Jazz asked quietly.

“He's uhh... not here.” Optimus started and as Bumblebee's optics flicked towards Prowl's room.

“He's off in the woods enjoying nature,” Bumblebee rolled his optics in rather convincing exasperation. “There's terrible connection out there. He should be back in a couple of days.”

“Tell him to ping me when he gets back then,” Jazz shrugged. “Catch ya later then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been a while since I've actually watched TFA, and I can't quite remember how the Jettwins speak so I kinda made it up as I was going, but the twins may not speak very much...  
> Also longest chapter yet and this isn't even all of it.  
> The Cybertronian in the middle of the city is a reference to Blurr, but he won't be making an appearance in this story.


	14. Surprise Inspection (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter that made me put the "Graphic Depiction of Violence" tag on, so some stuff is definitely happening this chapter ^^

It was the middle of the night as Jazz slowly snuck back into the warehouse. It wasn't that Sentinel had ordered him to do anything, in fact Sentinel had spent more time in the wash racks than looking for the Decepticons that had been receiving the signal they'd traced from Cybertron. Jazz pulled his processor away from his exasperation at Sentinel as he moved almost silently through the base, although no one was up to see him anyway. A quick scan of Prowl's door showed that it was still locked as Sentinel had said. Carefully Jazz began to pick the lock and a few moments later it clicked open. He pushed the door open to reveal Prowl sitting with his back to the door, apparently meditating. Jazz frowned slightly as he locked the door behind him, why had Prowl been hiding all day? Jazz strolled towards Prowl, but after a few steps he became even more concerned. Prowl should have noticed that he was there by now, meditating or not. Upon closer inspection his arms seemed to be twitching every now and then, accompanied by a quiet groan of shifting metal.

“What's wrong my mech?” Jazz asked, although not loudly. Prowl lurched ungainly out of his meditative position, his arms were gaining mass from somewhere and Jazz watched aghast as his tyres disappeared and his legs changed shape. Prowl was twisting around, pushing himself off the floor to look at Jazz with – to Jazz's surprise – mauve optics.

“Jazz?!” Prowl managed to gasp out before he grit his dentae in pain. Jazz watched as Prowl began to grow a tail as his shoulders and neck gained even more mass from nowhere. He backed off as Prowl's nasal ridge and jaw stretched forward.

“Prowl? What's happening?” Jazz somehow managed to keep his voice relatively calm as razor sharp dentae lined Prowl's new intake. The only response Prowl gave was a growl and an aggressive rumble of his engine that sounded different to how it had before. Prowl slowly got to his pedes, snarling with his claws held out wide.

Jazz frowned, his face set as he took out his nunchuks. Prowl lunged at Jazz, claws swiping at Jazz's spark chamber. Jazz deflected the swipes with his nunchuks, the strength behind each slice vibrating up through his hydraulics. At the first break in Prowl's swipes, Jazz slammed the end of his nunchuks into the side off Prowl's helm, knocking the beast away from him. Prowl stumbled, snarling viciously as Jazz reset his fighting position. Prowl fell to all fours, his audials pinned back as he growled low once again.

Prowl leapt forward this time aiming to bite anything he could get purchase on. Jazz ducked under the initial leap, aiming his nunchuks at Prowl's knee when he landed. It was a solid hit but a minor injury that didn't even slow the beast down as it swiped a servo down at Jazz's face. The sharp digits crashed through his visor, shattering it into pieces and scoring deep gashes down the rest of his face. Jazz leapt back, taking a swift invent as the beast turned to face him once again. Jazz noted the dent on the beast's knee before it dived at him again. This time Jazz leapt to the side, bringing his nunchuks down again onto its knee and there was a crunch as something under the plating broke. Prowl just managed not to fall as it landed on a locked up leg with a pained yelp.

Jazz dared to hope that the beast wouldn't be as difficult to face now that it was injured, but what it lost in initial strength was replaced with a ferocity that hadn't been there before. There was no relent in its next flurry of slashes. The first few he managed to block with his nunchuks until the razor sharp claws sunk through his servo and into the grip, breaking the powercore that kept the nunchuks connected. The next swipe flung both ends of the broken nunchuks skidding away from Jazz. He vainly brought his arm up to shield his face but almost immediately regretted it when its jaws clamped around it, dentae an inch from his faceplate. Jazz tried to pull away but couldn't even get his arm to wiggle in the strength of its jaws. He yelled as with a jerk the dentae sank further into his plating, slicing and snapping the cables and lines beneath it. As energon began to flow freely from his useless arm the beast began to twist and pull, stretching the already damaged cables. His plating was groaning and cracking, hydraulics straining against the pull. Several snaps of cables had Jazz trying to lean forwards even as he lost the ability to move his servo. The beast placed one clawed servo above his spark chamber stilling his movement as, with one swift yank, it tore Jazz's arm off at the elbow.

Jazz fell backwards, landing hard on the floor as his gripped at the stump of his arm, trying to do anything to slow the energon pouring out. He tried to shuffle back as the beast dropped his arm into its own clawed servo, staring down at Jazz still growling menacingly. The beast bit down into the servo in its claws with a crunch that made Jazz jump. He watched as it ripped the servo off the remnants of his arm, idly throwing both parts to the floor. The beast limped forward, and Jazz began to fear that this truly was how he returned to the Well.

Suddenly there was a zap behind the door and it burst open to reveal Bumblebee and Ratchet standing there. Bee immediately rushed forwards even as Jazz cried “No! Stay back!”. Ratchet hurried forwards as well, heading straight for Jazz. Bee planted himself between Jazz and Prowl, causing Jazz to give another warning yell but the growl in Prowl's vox began to falter. Bee spread his arms wide, clearly barring Prowl from advancing on Jazz any more. The rumble of Prowl's engine finally quietened as he tilted his head curiously at Bumblebee. Slowly Bumblebee brought his servos forwards, reaching up for Prowl's face. His digits gently passed over the dent in Prowl's helm causing him to give a pained grunt. With light pressure Bumblebee slowly began to turn Prowl away from Jazz.

“Don't make him move too far Bumblebee, his leg's locked up,” Ratchet said swiftly even as he was working to close off all the leaking lines in Jazz's arm. As his battle protocols finally clicked offline the energon loss finally caught up with Jazz and the world around him began to swim. “Jazz, I need you to stay online...” Ratchet barked, but Jazz could do nothing except fall backwards as he fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm new around here, so tell me if I should change the tags or the rating or anything because I've kinda lost the ability to tell what's suitable for different ages.


	15. Distrust

Jazz was unsure when he went from being in stasis to being online. All his systems were coming online one at a time. At first it felt like he was floating, just his spark and processor in some indistinct place. Then he realised he was horizontal. Slowly awareness of his chassis began to come back to him. His back was against something, so he was lying down somewhere, but everything else felt strangely dulled. He checked his chronometer to find it was two days after the last time he remembered checking it. Suddenly his processor replayed his fight with Prowl. He forced his remaining systems online but could barely move as his optics onlined staring at the ceiling of the warehouse.

Almost immediately there was a servo on his chassis, pushing down gently to keep him from trying to move.

“No Jazz. Stay calm. You're in the medbay. I've dulled your pain sensors but there may still be some feedback.” came Ratchet's gruff voice. After a few seconds Jazz stopped trying to sit up, instead his optics slowly slid from the ceiling to Ratchet's face and then onto his stump of an arm. The lines had been sealed and the end had been neatened but his exposed cables were still sending trickles of painful feedback to his processor.

“Still going to be a while on your servo. I needed to get some extra metal from my stores on Omega so I'm still putting it back together.” Ratchet had moved away again and soon the sounds of welding filled the medbay.

In the relative quiet Jazz began to mull over his situation and how it could be resolved. The earth team had clearly given Sentinel a decent enough excuse for his absence and they were probably going to be busy scanning for decepticon signals. That bought him a few more days. So back to Prowl; he obviously had some sort of beast coding, and was definitely dangerous. Jazz's gaze fell back down to his missing servo. It wasn't something he could let slide and sort out himself, his injuries were too obvious, Sentinel would ask too many questions and the Jettwins would be worried and want to get involved.

Suddenly there was a movement in the doorway and, glancing up, Jazz saw Prowl standing there peering at him. Jazz's expression hardened and as his visor normally covered his optics the stark difference from his normal jovial expression made Prowl pause before approaching.

“I'm sorry.”

Jazz scoffed. “You would have offlined me last night. And would have succeeded if they hadn't stopped you. And all you have to say is 'sorry'?” Prowl averted his gaze to the berth the far side of Jazz.

“What else is there to say?” he said quietly.

“You're dangerous Prowl. Every klik you spend here is putting every other bot here in danger.”

“You're the one in the wrong here.” Ratchet interjected. “He would have been fine – and harmless – if you hadn't broken into his room.”

“Not having a target does not mean harmless,” Jazz shot back. “None of these bots should trust you Prowl. I certainly don't.” With those words something in Prowl seemed to break. He didn't respond, in fact he didn't even seem to be venting as he turned away from Jazz and strode out of the room. There was the sound of a transformation and then an engine rev as he pulled away from the warehouse.

There was a few kliks of silence before the loud thunk of something dropping onto the berth next to him that made him jump. He looked down to see his servo in more or less one piece and then up to Ratchet who was glaring at him so hard that – if he hadn't been angry himself – would have made him attempt to shrivel up where he lay.

“This is going to hurt,” was the only warning he gave before pulling on the exposed lines and cables and beginning to reattach his servo. Jazz offlined his vox, determined not to make a sound as Ratchet resealed the energon lines, reattached the cables and slowly, ever so slowly feeling began to come back to his servo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the lack of update last week, I was out of the country and didn't have access to anything. Also I don't plan on making anyone else cyberwolves in the main story (and Jazz currently isn't one if it wasn't clear) but there may or may not be a crack epilogue being written where shit goes down ^^


	16. Absence makes the Spark grow fonder

Ratchet had barely spoken to Jazz since Prowl had left. In fact he only spoke to check up on Jazz's recovery, and even then it was in short clipped sentences. Optimus had visited several times, mostly to fully sort out the situation and to have several long conversations about what to tell Sentinel. After Optimus explained how they already knew about Prowl (for barely a couple of months) and had set up ways to deal with it (mostly true, simply leave him alone) and as he slowly regained full functionality in his servo, Jazz finally relented and agreed to say it had been a sparring incident with Prowl.

That just left Prowl.

He hadn't come back to the warehouse and he wasn't answering his comms. Everyone was beginning to worry but Bumblebee was taking it hardest. He'd become anxious and jittery but was also unwilling to leave the warehouse. A few days into this behaviour Jazz returned to the Steel Haven, and the morning after that Bumblebee didn't come out of his room. Almost a week went by and Bumblebee had only come out twice to get energon. He regularly pinged Prowl with any updates he could think of even though Prowl still hadn't responded.

**::** How often do shifts happen? **::** he sent after he woke up from another nightmare – thankfully not as bad as the first. For a while there was no reply and Bee had stopped waiting for one when one actually came through.

**::** It depends. The faster your processor cycles the more likely you are to shift. But under normal circumstances I find it there's approximately a month in between **::** This news almost immediately sent Bee into a panic, causing his processor to cycle faster which only made him panic even more.

**::** That means it's gonna happen soon! Prowl what do I do? What if it happens when I'm on patrol? What if humans see? What if Sentinel sees? Prowl I don't– **::** Bumblebee would have continued working himself into a full meltdown if another ping from Prowl hadn't cut his line of thinking off.

**::** Bumblebee! Slow down. Focus on your vents **::** Processor flashing back to Prowl's servo on his back, Bumblebee took two slow vents.

**::** Thanks Prowl **::** Bee paused, the moment of silence making his processor flip back to the idea of shifting. **::** I don't want to go through it alone Prowl... **::** For a few kliks there was no response and Bumblebee feared that Prowl had gone comm-silent again.

**::** Go to my room and lock the door behind you **::** Bumblebee leapt off his berth immediately, dashing out of his room and towards Prowl's. After the door clicked shut behind him he looked around eagerly, only to be greeted by an empty room.

**::** Prowl! What's the deal? **::**

**::** Just wait Bumblebee. I'll be back soon **::** So Bee sat down under the tree where he would normally expect Prowl to be and waited. It was at least several hours he sat there, drifting in and out of a light doze, before he heard rustling in the tree above him. Snapping awake instantly he leapt up, peering through the leaves for a sign of Prowl. He just thought he saw a streak of gold when Prowl elegantly leapt down from an entirely different part of the tree.

“Prowl!” Bee yelled, immediately jumping on the ninjabot with a crushing hug. Prowl gave a small smile as he gently returned it. After a moment's pause Prowl bent and placed a kiss on the top of Bee's helm. The contact made him start and Bee's head snapped up looking Prowl straight in the optics. Bumblebee ran a servo over the top of his helm where Prowl had kissed him, his blank expression slowly morphing into a smile of pure joy. He jumped forwards, bowling Prowl over so that he was trapped underneath him. Bee leant forward pressing his intake against Prowl's in an aggressive kiss. When he pulled away he looked down to see Prowl grinning up at him. Prowl's arms snaked around Bumblebee and held him flush against his chassis.

“Sorry I kept you waiting,” Prowl said quietly. Bumblebee looked up from where he'd been snuggling into Prowl's chassis.

“You're back, so it's fine. Just don't do it again.” Prowl smiled slightly to himself.

“You've given me an excellent reason to stay, as well as actually trapping me here.” Bumblebee gave a soft 'hn' of amusement even as his biolights faded and his vents slowed down as he dropped into sleep. Prowl was content to just lie there, feeling truly at home for the first time since he left the dojo. Prowl gave a long exvent as the long journey from Dinobot island back to the warehouse began to catch up with him. The warmth from Bee's frame and his slow vents were slowly pulling him into slumber as well, and Prowl stopped resisting as the knowledge that he was happy – actually happy – began to settle in his processor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hot tip: when in doubt on how to end a chapter, stay up til 3 in the morning thinking about the situation and write whatever comes to mind.  
> Read later for typos.
> 
> As it is unclear, the words in brackets near the beginning are Optimus's reasoning behind what he's telling Jazz, so that he isn't lying but Jazz has more reasons not to tell Sentinel.


	17. Beginning of the end

Bumblebee woke up with his helm in Prowl's lap and almost immediately felt his face split into a wide grin.

“Finally awake I see,” Prowl said as he began to gently rub between Bumblebee's horns. Bee stretched out his back strut before sitting up, still grinning hugely.

“Did you sleep at all?” he asked. Prowl nodded gently but still averted his optics, smiling somewhat sheepishly.

“I slept for a while, but after I woke up I was mostly just... happy in your company.” Prowl felt his faceplate heat up slightly but his small smile never slipped. Bee stared at Prowl for a few moments before pouncing at him with another plate-denting hug.

“Prowl, you doof! I was asleep! That doesn't count as company!” He leapt up, dragging Prowl with him. “Come on! We're refuelling and then we're racing! You get to spend the entire day with the fastest bot on four wheels!” Bumblebee posed as when he reached the door, displaying his tyres with a smug grin. Prowl brought a servo to his intake as he chuckled gently.

“You mean the loudest bot on four wheels.”

“You know it!” Bumblebee grinned back as he flung open the door.

The moment they reached the common area however there was a loud alert from the comms room. A few kliks later Optimus came bursting out calling for everyone that Decepticons were attacking a warehouse on the outskirts of Detroit. As Bulkhead came shuffling in Optimus noticed Prowl.

“Prowl! Good to have you back, we're going to need everyone on this.” Optimus gave Prowl a determined nod with a small smile whereas Prowl's face was set in a small frown as everyone gathered at the main entrance. “Autobots! Transform and roll out!”

 

By the time they reached the more industrial side of Detroit there were already two warehouses that were blown open and smoking, their contents strewn everywhere. A third had a large hole melted in the main wall. As they got closer a laser blast tore through the roof, followed swiftly by a large crate which was then blasted out of the air showering metal doodads everywhere. From inside the warehouse there was a short burst of laughter followed by a shout of “Ten points!”

“We are not here for games Blitzwing! Our glorious leader has sent us on a vital mission!” Prowl crept closer, motioning for the others to stay behind.

“You mean his pet vermin did...” Blitzwing's calmer personality murmured.

“It is for the Decepticon cause! It was Lord Megatron that gave the order and so it is unquestionable.” There was a pause before Lugnut continued. “Besides I blew up an entire storage unit, so I would gain the most points.”

“And then you'd lose them all for blowing up your teammate!” Blitzwing's angry persona yelled in immediate response, startling Prowl to move. His pede collided with one of the doodads that went clanging into a pile of cymbals and triangles that had spilled out of a different box. Prowl froze, hoping that the Decepticons would assume it was the debris shifting from Blitzwing's game, but a glance into the warehouse showed Blitzwing's monocled face staring straight at him. Prowl leapt backwards, flinging a shuriken straight at Blizwing's face as he attempted to get out of sight again. Blitzwing's cannon snapped down, blasting the shuriken with ice and sending it clattering to the floor. Prowl could hear the yell of “Autobots!” even as he regrouped with the rest of the team.

“It's Blitzwing and Lugnut. They appear to be searching for something but they weren't clear as to what it could be.” Prowl relayed.

“Then if we'll have to move in immediately to stop them from taking anything!” But the moment Optimus had finished speaking a large truck came flying at them. Everyone dived away and the truck crunched into the concrete between them. There was a hail of laser fire rained down on the truck and it exploded in a large plume of black smoke. The force of it pushed Prowl into the ground, but he glanced up long enough to see Blitzing diving back into the warehouse from where Lugnut was hovering in alt-mode. Apparently Optimus had noticed as well as he said

“Prowl, you get in the warehouse and see if you can get Blitzwing out of there, we'll make you a window.”

Prowl nodded as he shrank into the shadows of the warehouses as everyone else moved forwards to attack. Bumblebee and Ratchet both fired blasts at Lugnut, Ratchet's hitting the left wing while Bumblebee's hit the cockpit. Neither of them seemed to do any damage and Lugnut simply let loose a missile in retaliation. Optimus fired his grappling hook which sank into on of Lugnut's tail fins. Optimus pulled as hard as he could, attempting to send the jet into a spin but Lugnut was barely shifted off kilter. In fact he span in the opposite direction, simultaneously flinging Optimus into the air and getting the grapple out. Lugnut attempted to shoot Optimus out of the air with lasers but Optimus used the thruster on his axe to alter his trajectory so that they barely missed him. As Lugnut lined up his next shot Bulkhead's wrecking ball collided with the underside of his cockpit. Lugnut's front half was forced up sending him careening backwards and slightly sideways.

Prowl took the opportunity to make a break for the hole in the side of the warehouse. He sprinted full tilt but as he reached the opening he heard the tell-tale sound of a missile speeding through the air. He skidded to a halt, diving back the way he came. The explosion blasted Prowl further than he accounted for, he landed on his arms bringing his legs around in a wide circle as he span to a halt, smoke from the explosion still clinging to his frame.

“I'm going to need more of a window than that!” Prowl called.

Suddenly one blue and one orange blur shot over Prowl's helm and circled around Lugnut in opposite directions before peeling away. As Lugnut span around to follow them they circled back, Jetstorm swooped up with a large gust of wind while Jetfire dived down with a plume of fire. Lugnut was forced into an uncontrolled roll and as he continued the roll in an attempt to regain control Jazz landed on the roof of the warehouse next to Prowl.

“That enough of a window?” There was a lightness to Jazz's tone that didn't spread to his faceplates. Prowl mentally shook his helm to clear the uneasy feeling that had settled on him.

“We need to stop Blitzwing from finding whatever they're searching for,” Prowl said in a deliberately flat voice as he shot off for the opening once again while Jazz ran alongside him on the roof.

When Prowl dived through the hole it was to see Blitzwing pulling a spherical object out of a crate with a satisfied smirk on his face. Prowl flung a shuriken at Blitzwing's servo before he could notice the ninjabot was there. It collided with his wrist causing him to drop the object as Jazz leapt down through the hole in the roof. Jazz caught whatever-it-was from underneath Blitzwing as he spun around with a yell of “Autobots!” Blitzwing attempted to stomp on Jazz as he rolled out from near his pedes. Although the pedes narrowly missed him, Jazz flung the thing at Prowl. Prowl caught it – even on closer inspection he still couldn't work out what it was other than a ball – and made a break for the exit. As he reached the gap a sudden blast of ice froze his pedes to the ground. Looking outside he saw Bumblebee was closest to him.

“Bumblebee! Catch!” he called, throwing the ball as hard as he could. The yell took Bumblebee by surprise but he managed to keep a hold of it. He opened his intake to question but one glance at the red-faced triplechanger barrelling past Prowl had him folding into alt-mode and speeding away. For a few moments Blitzwing sprinted after the little car, but after realising he wasn't making any ground his cannons swung down. Aiming in front of the car so as not to damage the device he let loose a flurry of laser fire.

When the road in front of him suddenly exploded Bumblebee had enough time to transform and hug the ball close to his body as he went tumbling helm over pede, helm over pede, helm over pede before eventually rolling to a stop. He groaned in pain but had thankfully only suffered minor dents. He heard thundering pedesteps and suddenly remembered Blitzwing.

“Bulkhead, catch!” he yelled, throwing it high away from Blitzwing.

“Are we playing keepaway now?” Blitzwing's Random persona cackled as Bulkhead turned to look at them. He saw the ball flying at him, but it cleanly sailed between his outstretched servos, bounced off his helm and high into the air again.

There were simultaneous cries of “Lugnut!” from Blitzwing and “Jetstorm!” from Jazz. Lugnut started moving first, and he'd just about met the ball when Jetstorm dived around him and knocked it higher into the air again where a waiting Jetfire caught it. Both Blitzwing and Lugnut began to open fire at the Jettwins but the nimbler jets dived and dodged around every single shot, even passing the ball between them as they moved. Eventually Lugnut seemed to grow entirely bored of the whole situation and cut his engines. The twins followed him down, taking turns to dive as close as they could with the ball. Suddenly Lugnut transformed back to root-mode, arming the POKE as he did so.

“Get back!” Optimus yelled, but even as everyone began to move Lugnut punched the ground.

The explosion was so large that it sent the lighter Jettwins tumbling over and over in the air sending the object flying. Blitzwing launched himself into the air, caught it and landed with an earth-shuddering thud next to Lugnut. He tossed the ball to Lugnut who caught it, narrowing his optic at Blitzwing in suspicion.

“Get that back to Lord Megatron, I have some Autobots to deal with...” Blitzwing growled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun Daah! I'm back. Sorry about the delay, I decided to take a break over Christmas and then my mind got sidetracked from TFA to other things and then the chapter just wouldn't come.  
> So originally this was going to be the final chapter, but then when I started writing it the words just didn't stop, I think it's going to be three chapters but finding the dividing points is hard. But they will be a weekly release again (more or less), so that's good.  
> ((Also is it obvious that I needed a maguffin plot device but couldn't decide what it was so made it a ball? Because that's what happened))


	18. Bots vs Beast

“Very well. Report back as soon as you are able.” Lugnut said as Blitzwing started shuddering with the start of his shift. Lugnut watched for a klik before transforming and took off, his thrusters kicking up all the dust from the explosion that had just started to settle.

When Lugnut emerged out the top of the cloud with apparently no intention to engage them Sentinel's immediate thought was the cowardice of Decepticons.

“Jetfire! Jetstorm! Combine and apprehend him at once!” The Jettwins reappeared from the rooftops they'd been blown to and leapt into the air as they combined into Safeguard, but before they could even transform to jet-mode something launched itself at them from the dust. Everyone stared as they were pulled back to the ground by the black-faced, purple and tan beast. There was a sickening crunch as sharp dentae sank through their leg and ripped it off. Most of Safeguard was then unceremoniously dropped to the ground, but the leg was crunched, and crunched and crunched, the indistinguishable pieces then dumped at the beast's pedes. With the energon still dripping from its dentae the beast threw its helm back and howled.

As soon as Safeguard had been grabbed Jazz was in motion. He darted after Blitzwing, gritting his dentae and visibly flinching when their leg was torn off. He was only a few feet or so away from when they hit the ground and he immediately knelt beside them with a servo on their chassis.

“Safeguard, it's Jazz. Stay still.” Jazz had never seen him this injured before and he was unsure what else to do other than try to stem the energon flow. He looked around, needing Ratchet to be here and helping already, when his optics settled on Prowl who had a small frown on his face. Jazz glared at Prowl, processor taking the frown as proof that Blitzwing's beast form was Prowl's fault. As their optics met Prowl's expression seemed to melt off his face and Jazz almost unconsciously bared his dentae at Prowl when suddenly Ratchet was next to him, telling him to move so he could help.

When Jazz was distracted by Ratchet and finally looked away, the reality of his surroundings came back to Prowl. He shut away the guilt and put his focus back on Blitzwing and the battle. Bumblebee was hanging back and shooting but his stingers weren't even making Blitzwing flinch as he sliced repeatedly at Optimus. Bulkhead sent a wrecking ball flying in but Blitzwing's helm snapped around, dentae sinking into the solid metal. With one swipe the cable was cut and Bulkhead collapsed backwards. With a flick of his head Blitzwing sent the wrecking ball flying at Bumblebee and Optimus took the opportunity to leap up at Blitzwing's back. Optimus fired up the thruster on his axe and Blitzwing's audial flicked towards the sound. Suddenly Blitzwing dropped to all fours and Optimus went soaring over his helm. Blitzwing's helm snapped up and his dentae latched around the axe, leaving Optimus dangling in front of his face. Prowl took the opportunity to rush in. He sent three decoys in different directions, one jumping straight at his face while he attempted to dart around his pedes to get behind him. But Blitzwing didn't seem to pay any heed to the decoys, his servo slashing down at Prowl who barely managed to dive away. Optimus took the opportunity to swing up on his axe handle and kick Blitzwing in the face. The impact made Blitzwing's dentae sink through the axe, completely removing the thruster and sending Optimus plummeting to the ground. Blitzwing's other servo came sweeping around and Optimus dived away rolling to a halt next to Prowl. The blade of Optimus's axe flickered dangerously but thankfully remained on.

“Is there any way to make yourself shift like he did?” Optimus had only glanced at Prowl when he said this, mostly watching Blitzwing as he shook the remnants of the thruster out from his dentae.

“It's not how it works,” Prowl shook his helm lightly. Prowl moved slightly to the left as Bumblebee came sailing through the air towards him. As Bumblebee landed in a heap between them Prowl continued talking to Optimus. “It's coding that you can't control and will only run when it can no longer be contained.” Suddenly Bumblebee sat up and interrupted.

“What about that time you pinned me to the wall?”

“Excuse me?” said Prowl as Optimus exclaimed “What?!”

“Yeah, you'd shifted a few nights before, then I was pinging you from outside your door and when you came out your digits and dentae were all sharp.” Prowl drew his processor back and went silent as he contemplated what happened. He almost automatically folded into his meditative position when Optimus put a servo on his arm, shaking his helm.

“Not here. Get some distance. We'll try and buy you as much time as possible.” Prowl started off towards where Safeguard had been downed, knowing that's where Ratchet would be. Optimus leapt at Blitzwing using his grappling hook to gain momentum as he swung at Blitzwing's legs. Bumblebee dithered for a moment before following after Prowl. When Prowl looked at him questioningly Bumblebee puffed up in defense.

“I saw what happened last time you fought him alone. I'm not going to let that happen again.” Prowl felt a gentle smile pull at his intake before they reached Safeguard and the sight of Jazz made it slip right off again.

“Here to spread your coding to even more bots?” Jazz asked bitterly.

“Jazz, now is not the time,” Prowl said quietly. Jazz gave a short hum in response, turning his attention back to Safeguard. “We need you to buy us some time so that we can prepare a counter attack.”

“I'm not leaving you alone with him,” Jazz snapped back his hand resting protectively on Safeguard who simply looked confused.

“He's not alone!” said Bumblebee, taking a defensive step in front of Prowl. Ratchet had stood up and turned his helm towards Blitzwing where a large version of Sentinel's shield had appeared.

“Safeguard is stable, but he's not moving anywhere. And it looks like Sentinel could use your help.” Jazz looked over Safeguard before grimacing at where Blitzwing was attempting to slice through Sentinel's shield. Swiftly Jazz stood up, leaping onto the roof of the warehouse and sprinting over to help Sentinel.

“So what's the plan?” Ratchet asked as Prowl sat down in his meditative position.

“We're going to try and shift and make it a fair fight!” Bee explained.

“So he's meditating, and you're going to what? Pray to Primus?” Ratchet raised an optic ridge and Bumblebee suddenly froze as he realised that he was rather useless. Ratchet smirked as he sat down in front of Prowl.

“Medical ports,” he grunted idly, reaching out with his cables already in his servo. Bumblebee automatically covered his port with a servo whereas Prowl tilted his helm in thought for a moment before exposing his own. As Ratchet connected Bumblebee looked between them, slowly dropping his servo.

“Am I missing something?” Bee asked.

“If I can find the correct code, Ratchet can then copy it to himself and to you,” Prowl explained.

“Oh,” was all Bumblebee said as he extended his wrist, port open, towards Ratchet.

Prowl turned his awareness inwards. His vents slowed as he slowly mapped out his own chassis, awareness shifting deeper and deeper until he was completely focused on his t-cog. He tried to remember exactly what state he had been in when Bumblebee had disturbed him before. He imagined the changes that needed to happen, tried to activate them as if he were transforming, willing his t-cog to respond, but there was nothing. He changed tack. He envisioned the code he knew lurked in his t-cog, something powerful and dangerous inside him that leaked into his system. There was a small stab of pain deep in his t-cog, not quite enough to make him flinch. He continued the process, slowly drawing the code out when there was a long piercing howl that snapped him straight back to his surroundings, accompanied by a blinding stab of pain in his t-cog. He saw Bumblebee flinch as all of the code was sent in one big dump, the cables snapping back to Ratchet as they began to shift.

Prowl hadn't expected this shift to be different to any other he'd had, but underneath the pain there was a strength that he'd never felt before. When his shift was finished, he stood up tall, staring around and sniffing lightly. Right beside him were two of his pack, Ratchet scratching as the hole on his arm while Bumblebee went sniffing around Safeguard. The word had come so easily to Prowl that he almost hadn't noticed it; these bots were his pack. There was a scared cry from Safeguard as Bumblebee began to sniff around his wound. With a sharp bark Prowl called Bumblebee back to him, and he returned in a single bound, tail wagging happily as he stared up at Prowl. A warning growl from Ratchet made Prowl turn back to face Blitzwing. A manic grin had spread across his face as he stared at the three new cyberwolves ready to join the fray. He threw Sentinel from his grasp, leaping onto the warehouse that separated them. Prowl gave a low growl that became a vicious snarl as he launched himself at the thing that dared to threaten his pack.


	19. The Lone Wolf vs The Pack

When Prowl launched himself at Blitzwing, Ratchet and Bumblebee followed closely behind. Prowl leapt again using the edge of the roof, aiming straight for Blitzwing's throat. Ratchet caught the servo swiping down at them while Bumblebee had leapt up to get on top of Blitzwing's shoulder armament. But as Prowl's claws just grazed his throat Blitzwing leant backwards, twisting his chassis so he landed on all fours. Bee had just managed to stay balanced on the armament and took the opportunity to sink his dentae into it. With a surprised snarl, Blitzwing swiped blindly at Bee and although the claws missed him, he was pushed off the back, bouncing off Blitzwing's wing as he tumbled to the ground. Prowl dived in, attempting to get underneath his helm, but Blitzwing leapt back with him, his dentae snapping at him. Both Ratchet and Prowl launched themselves at Blitzwing, aiming at his shoulders to try and push him off the roof. Blitzwing braced himself for the impact, but Bumblebee had leapt up behind him and sliced straight through his treads, throwing off his balance. The combined force of Prowl and Ratchet sent him tumbling off the roof, tail and wings flailing around as he tried not to land on his back.

Bumblebee darted away, trying not to get flattened or whacked but as Blitzwing struggled to right himself Bumblebee decided to use the opportunity to attack. He managed to latch onto an audial, and although he was promptly thrown off, he managed to take a chunk of audial with him. Blitzwing finally got his pedes underneath him and immediately slashed down at Bumblebee. He got his arms above his helm but his knees buckled under the force of the blow. The next swipe blind-sided him, sending him flying through the wall of the warehouse. Prowl leapt down from the roof, bouncing off Blitzwing's wing down to check on Bee as he extricated himself from the rubble of the wall. The plating on his arms had been cracked open and there was energon leaking from a gash on his side, but he was still up and growling and ready to fight.

There was a snarl behind Prowl as Blitzwing dived at him, the red inside of his intake glowing ominously. But Ratchet suddenly came slamming down on Blitzwing's helm sending him crashing into the ground. Blitzwing recovered quicker this time, managing to get up and slash at Ratchet just as he landed, sending him into the crumpled heap of the ruined truck.

Prowl saw Blitzwing's back turned to him, and he realised that going for the throat wasn't getting anywhere. The flinches of hits to his wings came to his processor, and he launched himself at Blitzwing. He managed to get his claws through the plating of a wing, and even as Blitzwing howled in pain he began to slash at every inch of plating he could reach. Suddenly the wing beneath him moved, swinging down and then sharply up, flinging Prowl high into the air. Blitzwing turned on him as he began to fall, a dangerous glint of pain and rage in his optics. He slashed at Prowl, his claws raking across his chest, sending him spinning away to land hard on his back.

There was a pause as Blitzwing threw back his helm and howled and Bumblebee came dashing over to Prowl. Bumblebee whined softly, sniffing and nosing around the energon that was leaking from Prowl's chassis. There was a crash as Ratchet emerged from the wreckage of the truck, and Blitzwing's attention was immediately fixed on him. With a small growl, Prowl pushed Bumblebee away from him, urging him to return to the fight and help Ratchet. When Bumblebee lingered, attempting to lick at the wound, Prowl gave a much harsher snarl, kicking at Bumblebee to force him away; there were more important things. Bumblebee whined, but actually left this time, and Prowl let his helm thunk back onto the ground.

Suddenly Prowl heard movement behind him and he growled at the approaching threat, trying to warn them away despite the fact he couldn't even turn to face them.

“Easy Prowl. It's me, Optimus,” came a response as the bot walked around him. Prowl's growl faltered, he recognised this bot. He recalled being in a similar situation before with this bot, and he hadn't taken that opportunity to attack him. Prowl watched warily but didn't react negatively to Optimus approaching. Optimus slowly moved forwards, keeping his servos in front of him, open and low. He got close enough to kneel down next to Prowl without him so much as baring his dentae at him. “Prowl, I'm going to help you,” Optimus said quietly, slowly placing his servos near Prowl's wounds. Prowl flinched at the contact but gave a small chuff as he turned his helm to watch Bumblebee, leaving Optimus to do what he could for his injuries.

When Blitzwing had started going at him, it was all Ratchet could do to dodge his swipes and bites. After a minute or so Blitzwing let out a snarl of frustration, dropping to all fours so that he could move faster. A couple of near misses later and Ratchet had dodged to find himself up against a wall. Just as Blitzwing bared his dentae in a grin Bumblebee managed to get on top of his already damaged wing. Bumblebee ripped and tore at the injury, pulling the plating back and exposing the circuitry underneath. With a vicious snarl Blitzwing flung Bumblebee into the air just like he'd done with Prowl. This time however Ratchet launched himself at the back of Blitzwing's helm, slashing at the already damaged audial. Blitzwing flinched away from the pain, choosing to dislodge Ratchet as Bumblebee landed heavily on the ground. Blitzwing span around, ready to slash down on Ratchet when a huge fireball blasted him on the exposed circuitry on his wing. Blitzwing seemed to freeze for a second before falling to his knee with a shudder.

The shivers continued as he shifted back to his bot form again almost abnormally fast. He turned around at once, firing a blast of ice at Safeguard. Bumblebee leapt up, fastening his dentae around the cannon. Despite the ice that formed on his dentae, the blast did flicker off when he bit down into the barrel.

“Get off me, you irritating bug!” Blitzwing's face had changed to the angry one as he grabbed Bumblebee and pulled him forcibly off the cannon. Bumblebee swiped at the servo that held him and he was dropped to the floor. He darted away to where Ratchet was getting to his pedes again and started snarling at Blitzwing.

Blitzwing frowned as he swung his other cannon down, a torrent of flames pouring out. With a yelp Bumblebee and Ratchet leapt backwards, Blitzwing rose to press the advantage, taking a step forwards and forcing the little cyberwolves back again. He took another step when suddenly a wrecking ball smashed into his cannon. The flames died as the cannon was forcibly disengaged, he was turning around to face Bulkhead when Optimus's grappling hook wrapping around his wrist. He went to pull it off when the wrecking ball made itself known again, this time wrapping around his other wrist.

He began to pull on them both, his brute strength dragging the bots across the ground when Jazz leapt over his shoulder with a pair of stasis cuffs. They were swiftly attached to one of his wrists. As at least half of his motor functions were locked, Blitzwing fell to his knees again. Jazz expertly swung to Blitzwing's other arm, fastening the stasis cuffs and leaping off as Blitzwing fell to the floor in full stasis lock.

When Blitzwing hit the floor Bumblebee leapt nearer, growling menacingly. But when Blitzwing didn't even say anything in response, he backed off with a satisfied snort. His helm suddenly jerked upwards, audials perked and listening intently before he dashed off towards Prowl. When he arrived the rattling and shuddering he'd heard had stopped and Prowl was lying there in his bot form again. Bumblebee lay down next to him, sniffing and whining at the still form of Prowl, but after a moment Prowl cracked a smile, opening an optic as he reached a servo up to rub between Bumblebee's audials.

“I'll be fine, Bumblebee. Stop worrying.” Bumblebee began to shudder and Prowl dropped his servo again and he shifted back. By the time he finished shifting Ratchet had appeared – also in bot form – and had flopped down next to Prowl checking on his wounds. Bumblebee however slipped one servo into Prowl's and lifted the other one to rest on Prowl's shoulder, effectively attaching himself to Prowl.

“We did it,” he mumbled. “Now let's never do that again.” Almost as soon as he finished speaking he dropped into recharge. Ratchet gave a small exvent as he leant back on his servos and the other Autobots began gathering around.

“This won't be the end of this...” Ratchet murmured as he flopped backwards, the need for recharge building.

“I know...” Prowl just managed to say before he too succumbed to recharge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, despite Ratchet's misgivings this is the end of this story. I was trying to write another chapter, but anything I started writing felt like the start of a new story rather than the end of the current one.  
> This is the first story I've ever really finished, certainly of this length and certainly that I published for other people to see, so any feedback would be appreciated.  
> Thank you for sticking with me.
> 
> ((The epilogue is still happening, it's just taking a while to manifest properly))


End file.
